Mobile devices, such as mobile phones, notebooks, computers, etc., typically have the ability to estimate location and/or position with a high degree of precision using any one of several technologies such as, for example, satellite positioning systems (e.g., GPS and the like), advanced forward-link trilateration (AFLT), just to name a few examples of signal-based positioning systems and/or corresponding signals. Using high precision location information, applications for a mobile device may provide a user with many different services such as, for example, vehicle/pedestrian navigation, location-based searching, just to name a couple of examples. Here, high precision signal-based location information (e.g., obtained from GPS and/or other signal-based positioning systems) may be processed according to a global coordinate system (e.g., latitude and longitude or earth-centered xyz coordinates). While such use of signal-based location information referenced to a global coordinate system may be useful in providing some services (e.g., outdoor vehicle navigation), such signal-based location information referenced to a global coordinate system may be impractical for other types of services such as indoor pedestrian navigation.
In certain indoor environments, such as office buildings, shopping malls, airports, stadiums, etc., certain example signal-based positioning techniques may make use of various terrestrial-based wireless signal transmitting devices, e.g., wireless network access points, cellular network base stations, special-purpose beacon transmitters, etc., that transmit wireless signals which may be received by the mobile device and used for positioning purposes. For example, a mobile device may receive a signal-based positioning signal from a transmitter and based thereon determine a pseudorange between the transmitter and receiver. Hence, for example, positioning may be provided based on trilateration and/or other known signal-based positioning techniques. However, not all indoor environments may be adequately supported by signal-based positioning systems. Moreover in certain instances, it may be beneficial for a mobile device to avoid using signal-based positioning techniques.